Alexandra Rozhkova
Photographer
Paris, France
~
Instagram: @alexandrine_ar
• Beauty Rituals
As Goethe once said “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, a see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul”. So I try to follow almost the same recipe every day to feel myself happy and fulfilled and take care of my spirit.
• Meditation For Clarity
I started doing some meditation several times a week, it helps me to see more clearly when there’s too much noise, thoughts and too many distractions.
• Don’t Be Afraid to Take Risks in Business
While quitting my full time job to become freelance I was worried about money and at first it was not simple. But little by little I managed to find projects that I love, the ones that pay rather well and leave me free time to do other things I like like traveling more often. If you’re going to start your business, but are afraid to begin, tell yourself that probably it won’t be easy at first but the solution will come. The most important is to do the change. • Creative Tools I Love Photoshop and Lightroom for work. Also, I love doing something with my own hands and so I really love taking my watercolors and to draw nature.
• Living Simply In Paris
I learned a lot about slow living from the French and their famous “art de vivre”! Paris is rather hectic like any other big city, but it’s in France that I learned to disconnect, take my time and spend a quality time with my friends and family (even if it was not so easy at the beginning). So I’d say slow living for me is taking my time in the morning to have a cup of coffee or breakfast on a terrace with a book ot with a friend. To spend a quiet Sunday with family, going to a farmers’ market and then cooking a lunch/dinner together. Put down my phone in the evening to enjoy a book I wanted to read a long time ago. While traveling to go to one place and discover it on foot or rather making small distances by car in order to get to know it better versus driving hundreds of kilometres just to tick some places off my map.
• Cafe Recommendations
+ Cafe Mignon in Paris (literally “cute cafe” in French), a friendly atmosphere, one of my favorite neighbourhoods and great coffee and cakes! + Cafe du Phare in Finistère at ile de Batz: Situated on a tiny island of some 500 inhabitants, this cafe overlooks a lighthouse (“Phare” means a lighthouse in French) and you can take some coffee and pastry or lunch right beside the stunning view of a lighthouse and the sea...
+ Atelier September in Copenhagen: one of the most beautiful cafes in the world (for me) that I discovered during my trip to Copenhagen.
• Authors I Love
All books by Ray Bradbury, Virginia Woolf and Neil Gaiman. I can read them a hundred times and still find so many new things.
• The 411
I’m a photographer and community manager who loves discovering places less explored in France and escaping Paris to take in the salty air in Brittany and Normandy. Avid explorer and flâneuse in Paris in my free time. Can be usually found reading a book on a terrace and capturing stylish strangers with my camera.